Joseph Stiglitz And His Wife: Here's Why People Get Married

Financially independent, college-educated individuals are much
more likely to marry than those with only high-school diplomas,
according to a Pew Study cited by
New York magazine's Molly Langmuir.

Langmuir's latest article, which appears in the current issue of
the magazine, captures some playful banter between Nobel
prize-winning economist Joseph
Stiglitz and his wife Anya Shiffrin, who have a dialogue
about why people marry.

The two go back and forth, casually citing studies and fun
anecdotes.

But leave it to an economics-minded couple to note that one of
the benefits of marriage is related to one of the most
fundamental principles of economics. From the
article:

J.S.: Another potential factor is Roe v. Wade. There was this
study that looked at what fraction of children used to be born
within six or seven months of the marriage. It was a significant
number! Now that we have abortion, shotgun marriages are much
less likely to occur.

A.S.: I’d love to comment on that study, but
everything I know about it comes from you. One thing that
definitely happens in a marriage, speaking of division of labor,
is a division of information. When I was a journalist, I had to
pay attention to where the dollar was and what the stock market
was doing. Now I can always ask you. And there are a million
things you don’t have to pay attention to because you can ask me.
All domestic matters, for example.